Courage Extinguished
by dark lord Zagato
Summary: Still out for vengence, Martina puts a curse on Lina that removes her self confidence.


Courage Extinguished  
by Dark_Lord_zagato**(at)**yahoo**(dot)**com  
disclaimer: Enjoy! 

    At the gate of Seyruun, a cloaked figure made it's way into the city by walking in with a large crowd. When the suspicios person was past the guards she pulled her hood back revealing blue eyes and lime green hair. 

    "Lina... today I'll make you regret what you did." Martina said while walking deeper into the city. 

    Inside one of the kingdom's many librarys, the silence was broken as a loud sneeze echoed through the room followed by the crashing of books. 

    "Kyaaa! Don't scare me like that!" Cried Amelia, kneeling down to retreive what she had dropped. 

    Scratching her nose, Lina smiled and told her friend "Relax, we're the only people in here right now." She then reached down to help gather the books. 

    "Eeewwww! Lina...!" 

    Wondering what Amelia meant, Lina looked down and noticed "evidence" of the sneeze was all over her gloves. "Oops, heh heh... excuse me." Not wanting to stain any of the books the young sorceress took her gloves off turning both inside out, making a mental note to wash them later as she tucked both inside her cape. 

    After another hour of studying the girls were ready to leave. As they walked up to the only door out of the room it suddenly opened. Martina entered and immediately noticed her target standing a few feet away. 

    "It's you!" She yelled in suprise. "Prepare yourself Lina, I'm going to have my revenge on you now!" 

    "Nice to see you again too." Lina replied, much to the irratation of Martina. 

    "How did you get into the city, didn't the guards stop you?" Questioned Amelia. "You're the last person that should be walking around here unsupervised!" 

    Martina let out a semi Naga laugh and told her "Of course not! They gave no resistence to me." Her voice carrying a tone of arrogance. 

    "Meaning she probably just snuck in." Lina added. "And I bet finding us here was an accident too." True as those words were, the uninvited guest was still visibly offended. 

    Noticing that Lina was bare handed, Martina decided how she would inflict her curse. She pulled a black card out of her pocket and threw it towards Lina, who instinctively caught it. 

    The darkness covering the card immediately soaked into Lina's hand, causing her to yelp out in fear. 

    "Ohohoho! you're so easy to trick my dear." Martina walked up to her victim, standing only a few inches away she took the newly blank card, lightly slapping it across Lina's cheeks. 

    The first thought Lina had was to grab the little brat by the hair and beat her senseless, but somehow she couldn't make herself go through with it. This was strange to her as she never had any trouble asserting herself in the past. 

    Martina raised a hand and coldly held Lina by the chin taking great pleasure in seeing that there was no anger in her eyes, only fear. Being completely helpless Lina began to tremble, feeling that she was about to cry she fought with all her will to avoid showing any tears. 

    "What's wrong? Why are you letting her do this to you?!" asked Amelia, clearly worried. 

    When Lina failed to respond to the question, Martina answered in her place. "It's simple, she can't fight back because she's fallen under my greatest curse. It's taken the fire out of her heart turning her shy and submissive. I can torment her all I want now because she is too spineless to resist." 

    Realizing how vulnerable her friend was, Amelia charged at the Xoana princess causing her to let go of Lina and stumble back several feet. Calling upon her white magic, Amelia placed a hand on Lina's forehead. 

    "Strange enchantment be undone... flow break!" Amelia held her spell on Lina for a long moment before letting go, but could easily tell it did no good. 

    "It can't be undone, I put everything i'm worth into creating this curse. It is my greatest achievement ever!" 

    As Martina started to approach Lina again, She could feel tears slowly run down her face. This was so embarrasing, yet Lina still couldn't stand up for herself. No longer able to breathe calmly she began to quietly sob. 

    "Stop it Martina! Or i'll personally throw you in prison." Amelia yelled, anger filling her voice. She was standing between the other two girls ready to attack if Martina got too close. 

    Being more fragile than the Seyrunn princess, Martina stood where she was. Victory was already achieved, there was no need to risk getting bruised. "Oh don't worry, I'm sure this crybaby doesn't mind. Right Lina?" 

    Now crying loudly and not knowing of anything else she could do, Lina ran out the door leaving the two behind. She ran aimlessly for a few minutes untill reaching a dead end inside an alley. 

    Lina sat down in the secluded area and continued crying. After a minute she heard footsteps getting close. She jumped to her feet in suprise awaiting Martina, only to see a familiar dark haired preistess through her tear blurred vision. 

    "Sylphiel?" Lina asked in a shaky voice. She remembered that Sylphiel was living with her uncle inside the city and thought that she was somewhat close to their house. 

    "Lina, is something wrong? I saw you run in here." Sylphiel noticed that Lina was distressed. She didn't know what was wrong, only that Lina needed someone's kindness. Sylphiel embraced Lina, wraping her arms around the frightened girl. 

    Lina buried her face in Sylphiel's robes. She calmed down slightly as her stress faded. 

    "You don't have to explain, I understand what's going on now." Said the preistess in a gentle voice. "A spell is hurting you... It's so strong I can't help but notice it." 

    Sylphiel summoned her power letting it flow through them, and with her strong will started pulling apart the spell on Lina. In her nurturing embrace, Lina could feel strength returning to her. Within seconds Martina's curse was completely gone and Lina's confidence had been restored. 

    "Are you feeling better now?" Asked Sylphiel. 

    Lina smiled at her and replied "Yeah, I'll be fine now thanks to you." 

    "That spell was slightly resistent to my power... who was the source of it?" Sylphiel asked, but was answered only by uncontrolled giggling. "Lina, what is it?" 

    Lina managed to stop laughing just long enough to say "I'm thinking about burning someone alive..." and then fell back into hysterics. 

    "Oh dear... maybe I didn't cast it right." was all Sylphiel could say. 

    "No, it was perfect. And be sure you're not tired by tonight because i'm buying you dinner somewhere nice!" Sylphiel was about to assure her friend not to worry about payment but wasn't able to interrupt. "And don't even think about turning me down or i'll carry you there. You've earned this." 

    Sylphiel agreeed to Lina's demands and went home to prepare. Lina left the alley after her and heard Martina's voice calling her from down the road. Barely able to keep a straight face, Lina waited for Martina to catch up. 

    "Was I too hard on you my dear?" Martina said in a playful tone. 

    Lina looked at poor fool timidly and asked "I'm so sorry, you're not going to hurt me are you?" Like any good predator, her act was very convincing. 

    "Not if you're a good girl. After all, I can't have my little pet running off like that again." Martina said as she got closer to Lina, taking her by the hand. 

    Around the corner Amelia had just finished explaining her situation to Zelgadis. Still beliving that Lina was defenseless and in great danger the two were searching desperately. 

    "I still say you're over reacting, not once have I ever seen that ego driven woman humble." Stated Zelgadis. 

    "I'm completely serious! We have to find her now, you have no idea how much danger she's in!" Amelia was about to continue, but was cut off by the horror filled scream of a young woman. 

    Amelia stood frozen, thinking that the scream she heard would be what a woman about to die would sound like. When she noticed that a large crowd had formed down the road, both of them hurried to the area. 

    Upon arriving at the scene, they saw Martina laying on the ground with Lina sitting on her back. Lina had Martina's arms locked behind her back in a very painful looking way. 

    "You're back to normal?! How did you recover so fast, I put my entire life in to making that spell for weeks!" Martina was taken off guard by Lina's actions. 

    "Oh, I just talked to a friend of mine and she took it right off." Lina cheerfully said with sadistic joy in her eyes, crushing the other girl's soul. 

    "Why didn't you just tell me you wanted to play? I'm sure the castle dungeon has a nice torture rack we could borrow!" 

    Lina stood up holding Martina by the arm and started walking towards the castle, nobody stood in their way. 

    "Noooo! Somebody help me, please!" screamed the prisioner as she was drug off. 

    After getting over the shock of what she witnessed, Amelia looked at Zelgadis and told him "We really should follow her to make sure she doesn't go too far with her punishment." 

    Holding Amelia's hand and running to catch up with Lina, Zelgadis muttered "Oh goddess... why me?" 


End file.
